One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

One of the most distressing wastes in modern society is that of food when so many people go hungry in both developed and third world countries. There is renewed attention being paid to this issue ranging from people inspired by wanting to reduce the waste to those knowing it can make an impact on feeding the world and climate change.

• Morton’s Salt took this issue on in its recent “Erase Food Waste” campaign to educate the public on the topic and provide tips on how to reduce waste.
• There have been several companies that are taking food refuse and repurposing it into new goods:
  • Pulp Pantry is a snack company that is repurposing the pulp created from juicing.
  • Rubies in the Rubble’s founder was inspired to create new food products after seeing all the food waste at London food markets.
  • S Café creates fabrics woven with coffee grounds and mixed with yarn for the benefits of odor absorption and UV protection.
• FoodMaven is a Colorado company focused on selling excess food—what they call “lost food”—to restaurants and institutional kitchens. The company is getting attention, because Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods, joined the board and invested in the company.
• Muita Fruta is an organization in Lisbon that is redistributing food so it doesn’t go to waste. The organization has mapped all the public and private fruit trees in the city and cares for them throughout the year. They make sure to harvest the fruit and provide it to those who need it or use it for food production. A mantra on the organization’s website reads, “Let’s turn the city into an Orchard!”
• The New York Times covered the topic recently in this article by Somini Sengupta, in which he notes that significantly reducing global food waste is a United Nations development goal and as such some countries are starting to put regulations in place to address the issue.

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